Celebration
by Formerly Known As
Summary: Robotnik is finally defeated. Sonic takes some time to consider this. Warning, some bad language.


Celebration  
By Formerly Known As  
  
Legal stuff: Uh, well, I don't own Sonic and related characters. I do own this story and if you steal this story you will be persecuted by the demons of hell or my lawyers. Or both. Okay, have fun now!  
  
Author's Note: This is the same story I had up before with a little bit of editing to fix grammar and a few rough spots in the piece. Thanks to everyone who loved it the first time and special thanks to everyone who told me so. I hope the rest of you like this story as well.  
  
Warning, this is not a happy piece of writing. Just be warned ahead of time. Okay, I'll shut up now.  
  
**************  
There's celebration outside. Music. People cheering. Food. I think I smell chilidogs. I'm tempted to go outside just for a chilidog. I think Uncle Chuck is the one making them. He's the only one who knows how to make a decent chilidog around here. But I don't leave. Don't really want to. I've got things I need to do in here.  
  
We've won. Robotnik's been defeated. His empire has fallen. He's dead. Selfish fuck. He was suppose to take me out too. He was suppose to take me down even as I took him down. We were suppose to go out together. As ultimate enemies, dying in a fabulous battle. To be remembered for that final titantic battle. But he didn't get me. He died and left me here. Alone.  
  
I know you'll argue, say I'm not alone. Tell me about how many friends I've got, how they're there for me. I don't know. Maybe they are and I'm too stupid to see it. Or maybe I'm seeing everything just right. Couldn't say.   
  
But I know one thing. None of them listened. Not to me. Not to what I said.   
They never listened. So I stopped saying things. Oh sure, I was always speaking, saying crap. But none of it was real. It was just worthless crap. It meant nothing. I haven't talked to any of my friends. Not about real things. I've talked about the weather and defeating Robotnik and raids and crap like that. But I haven't talked about me, about my hopes, my fears, what I want, what I feel. None of the stuff that really matters.   
  
So I sit in here and feel alone instead. Depressed. Things were easier when Robotnik was around. I knew where I was with Robotnik. But now...I don't know anymore. We have a kingdom to rebuild. People to deroboticize. Sally's father to free. But...I don't know how to do all that crap. I smash things, I don't build them. Rebuilding things is Sally's job. Not mine.  
  
Sally...I'd like to believe that I love her. Maybe I do. But if I do it's not enough. Nothing is enough. Not anymore.  
  
It's been nearly two weeks since Robotnik was defeated and Robotropolis destroyed. Everyone was so happy. I was happy. I mean we won. We partied like you wouldn't believe that first night. And the second. And the third. And then the second week rolled around. And I stopped wanting to party. You wouldn't think it of me, would you? But it's true. After a week I didn't want to party anymore. Because partying could no longer distract me from what I was feeling. Alone. Worthless. Hopeless.   
  
That last one surprises me more than the other two. Hopeless. We won. I should have lots to hope for. But all I ever hoped for was Robotnik being defeated. And now he was and I had nothing left to hope for. Nothing...  
  
I stand up and walk over to my bed. I slide my hand under the mattress until I feel it. Cold steel. The coldest kind there is. I pull it out slowly. I let the dim light in my hut play slowly over its delicate curves. It's beautiful, it really is.  
  
If my friends knew I had this, I don't know what they'd think. That I was crazy, probably. Or stupid. Or both. But I don't care what my friends think. This was a gift. A beautiful gift from a beautiful creature. That I destroyed. I never did thank him properly for it.   
  
I don't feel any remorse for killing him. I know Amy or Tails might argue with that point. Tell me it wasn't killing. That you couldn't kill a machine. But I know better. He was more than a machine. He was me in steel. He was practically my dark side. And I killed him. And I feel no remorse. After all, if he had won he would have killed me just as easily. Probably quicker since all he would have had to cut through was flesh. Not metal and steel. Those are awfully hard to cut through. You have no idea. But before he died, before I killed him, he gave me this. His left arm. Literally. He handed it to me before I finished him. I threw it away when he first handed it to me. But that was just theatrics. For Tails and Knuckles and everyone else watching. But he wasn't insulted. He knew I'd come back for it. So did I, and that's what scares me.  
  
It's his arm with the built in gun, by the way. He even showed me how to use it. A twisted gift, I suppose. But one I think will be put to good use.  
  
I really should write a note or something. For my friends. They may have never listened but then, I never really spoke. They deserve something. I lay the gun down on my bed. I scramble around a bit, finally locate a pen and a sheet of paper. I sit down and think for a minute. Then I scrawl something quickly and put tthe note on the desk. I pickup the arm. The gun. The garm. Whatever it is. I slide my hand down its cool curved surface. I pull off my glove. It really is beautiful. I turn it upside down and open the special access panel he showed me. I activate it. I place it to my head. I think about what I am doing, alone in my hut while outside a party rages. I make my decision.  
  
Suddenly the door bursts open. Sally comes bouncing in, a stupid grin on her face. Until she sees what I'm doing. But she's too late. I'm already pulling the trigger. I see Tails standing behind her, confusion all over his face. Knuckles is there too, but Sally's body is blocking him from my view.   
  
She's pregnant now. She hasn't told me, but I know. I'm not completely stupid, no matter what anyone else might say. I think I'm the father. Maybe not. I don't know what she does in her spare time. But I'm probably the father. I know we've been...together.  
  
Oh well, she'll find someone else. Someone better. Someone who won't abandon her when she finally thinks everything is going okay. I'm such a sleaze. Fuck it. I've made up my mind.   
  
Sally's lunging towards me. She seems to be moving in slow motion. I let the gun, arm, whatever, go off. Hmm, I really must thank Mecha for the gift when I see him. If I see him.  
*******  
  
"Well?" asks Sally, horror and hope warring inside her. "Will he be...Is he...  
Will he...?" No matter how she tries to phrase it, she can't get the words out. She's standing in the Knothole Medical Center with Knuckles and Rotor. Bunnie is comforting Tails in her hut. The rest of them stand over Sonic's body.   
  
"Hmm. His vitals have finally stabilized. He seems to be doing okay physically."  
  
"Physically? What do you mean by that?"  
  
"Well, physically he's fit as can be. But it looks like the blast must have grazed something in his head. He's in a coma, Princess."  
  
"He'll wake up, though, won't he? Won't he?"  
The doctor hesitates. "Truthfully...it doesn't look like it. He's sustained damage. It would take a literal brain surgeon to save him now. And...since this whole Robotnik war, I don't know where you're going to find one."  
  
Sally's face crumples. She reaches out gently and places her hand on Sonic's hand. He still isn't wearing a glove. She stands up and walks towards the door, her insides going numb. She looks at the shocked faces of Knuckles and Rotor.  
  
"I'll, just, uh, go get his glove," she says lamely, needing an excuse, not wanting to see anyone, not wanting anyone to see her. She exits the door. No one tries to stop her.  
  
Outside, people are still celebrating. The gun was a laser. They don't make much noise when going off. No one knows except for Sally, Tails, Knuckles, the doctor, and Bunnie and Rotor who helped carry Sonic to the Medical Center with out the crowd noticing anything was wrong. She'll have to tell them eventually. Maybe. Somehow.   
  
Lots of people notice Sally, call out to her, shout and cheer. She smiles and waves, not meaning any of it. No one notices though. Sally can act if she has the need to. Only Antoine notices something is wrong. He tries to talk to her about it, asks her what's wrong. She just tells Antoine to go to the Medical Center. Tells him he'll understand then. He looks confused, but does as she says. Sally hopes he won't scream or anything dumb like that.  
  
She reaches Sonic's hut and enters. She sees the blood on the bed, so little blood. She sees the blaster still lying where it had fallen on the floor.   
She relives the entire scene. She was coming to finally tell Sonic she's pregnant with his child. To ask him to marry her. Or hope he would ask her. She saw Sonic sitting there, a blaster pressed against his head. Knuckles thinks the damn thing came from Mecha-Sonic before Sonic finished him off. Sally remembers running, diving on Sonic, coming too late, just too late. Or not quite too late.  
  
She hit him just as the gun went off. Threw the beam off. Didn't kill him. But it didn't miss him either. Sally is still numb inside.  
She sits down on the bed. She picks up the blaster, contemplates using it on herself. Joining Sonic. Only, she can't figure out how to use the damn thing. She sits there for a while in the dim hut. Thinking. Feeling numb. She gets up and notices for the first time a slip of paper sitting on Sonic's desk. It could just be any slip of paper. But...Sally picks it up anyway. She begins to read and as she does, the numbness begins to flee. The note is only one line long, but by the end of it, Sally is sobbing. She remains that way for a very long time.  
******  
  
It's publicly announced to the population of Knothole that Sonic received some sort of internal injury during the battle with Mecha-Sonic and that the injury finally caught up with him. He's still alive, but in a coma. There aren't any brain surgeons around. Most were killed by Robotnik. And if there were, they probably wouldn't be able to find the sort of high tech equipment needed for that complex a surgery. So Sally has Sonic cryogenically frozen until something can be done. End of story. Robotnik is dead. Mecha-Sonic is dead. Even Snively is dead. And Sonic is nearly dead. End of story, except for one last note, the one Sonic left before he pulled the trigger. It read:  
  
Dear Everyone,  
  
Tell the kids I died fighting Robotnik.  
  
Sonic. 


End file.
